Oculus Rift — Everything you need to know

As we approach the realization of consumer VR, we'll be collecting all our Oculus Rift knowledge here. You can also follow SteamVR developments.

Though the HTC Vive is due out before the consumer version of the Oculus Rift, it's the Rift that pushed VR back into the limelight. The promise of the early dev kits revived the notion that domestic virtual reality entertainment might now be viable. No longer is virtual reality purely associated with the naff shiny '80s attempts at VR, or the Star Trek holodeck. The Rift, and the spread of competitors that have spawned around it, might give us a revolutionary new way to enjoy games. That's the plan, at least.

What’s the release date?

Oculus recently narrowed the launch window to "Q1 2016". That's marketing speak for sometime between January and March of next year.

What is it?

A headset with detachable earphones and visor that contains two screens streaming data at high refresh rates to create the sense of 3D virtual reality. Sensors on the surface of the visor are tracked by a scanning unit so that head motions can be translated into in-game movement. While the Rift’s competitor, the HTC Vive, comes with VR peripherals, the Oculus Rift is just a headset, for now.

Various iterations of the hardware have been in the hands of early adopters for a year or so now. Early versions of the rift only ran on low resolutions, and lacked full head head tracking capabilities. The final unit promises greater screen resolution and and a wide field of view to achieve stereoscopic 3D vision.

Games like Adrift are being developed for the Oculus Rift alongside 2D platforms.

What can VR do?

Our VR enthusiast Andy Kelly has been testing the limits of virtual reality for a while. Here are ten of his favourite experiences in virtual reality with the Oculus Rift, though we’ve since been impressed by Eve: Valkyrie, which will be an Oculus Rift launch title.

What are the best videos?

It’s impossible to capture the experience of virtual reality in a 2D YouTube video, but some videos do manage to sell some of the exciting promise of the platform. Eve Valkyrie, below, is one, but with some targeted .ini tweaks players have also managed to get GTA 5 running with the Oculus Rift, and demos like the Battle of Endor show VR could do a better job of putting you inside movies than 3D film ever will.

What else do we know?

The consumer Rift is being pitched at a $400 price point. Subject to change, of course.

What are the system requirements?

Of course no Oculus Rift games have been released yet, but Oculus have released the target system specs for VR apps. This is the gear you’ll need to run VR optimally. Oculus VR believes that a standardised spec is “fundamental to VR’s success, as developers can optimise and tune their game for a known specification, consistently achieving presence and simplifying development.” The specs are high, which is understandable when you consider the refresh rate the PC needs to hit on two eye-screens, but many of these components will hopefully be affordable by the time VR arrives—and they aren't necessarily required for every VR application. Some will be ore

NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater

Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater

8GB+ RAM

Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output

2x USB 3.0 ports

Windows 7 SP1 or newer

Where can I find out more?

The official Oculus Rift site has an austere picture of the consumer unit, and plenty of links to the VR community and the output of some of the various VR jams happening worldwide as developers rush to figure out what virtual reality can really do.